One of the first considerations which arose in the business mind of Mr. Lorry when business hours came round, was this:—that he had no right to imperil Tellson’s by sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under the Bank roof, His own possessions, safety, life, he would have hazarded for Lucie and her child, without a moment’s demur; but the great trust he held was not his own, and as to that business charge he was a strict man of business.
At first, his mind reverted to Defarge, and he thought of finding out the wine-shop again and taking counsel with its master in reference to the safest dwelling-place in the distracted state of the city. But, the same consideration that suggested him, repudiated him; he lived in the most violent Quarter, and doubtless was influential there, and deep in its dangerous workings.
Noon coming, and the Doctor not returning, and every minute’s delay tending to compromise Tellson’s, Mr. Lorry advised with Lucie. She said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a short term, in that Quarter, near the Banking-house. As there was no business objection to this, and as he foresaw that even if it were all well with Charles, and he were to be released, he could not hope to leave the city, Mr. Lorry went out in quest of such a lodging, and found a suitable one, high up in a removed by-street where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes.
To this lodging he at once removed Lucie and her child, and Miss Pross: giving them what comfort he could, and much more than he had himself. He left Jerry with them, as a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head, and retained to his own occupations. A disturbed and doleful mind he brought to bear upon them, and slowly and heavily the day lagged on with him.
It wore itself out, and wore him out with it, until the Bank closed. He was again alone in his room of the previous night, considering what to do next, when he heard a foot upon the stair. In a few moments, a man stood in his presence, who, with a keenly observant look at him, addressed him by his name.
“Your servant,” said Mr. Lorry. “Do you know me?”
He was a strongly made man with dark curling hair, from forty-five to fifty years of age. For answer he repeated, without any change of emphasis, the words:
“Do you know me?”
“I have seen you somewhere.”
“Perhaps at my wine-shop?”
Much interested and agitated, Mr. Lorry said: “You come from Doctor Manette?”
“Yes. I come from Doctor Manette.”
“And what says he? What does he send me?”
Defarge gave into his anxious hand, an open scrap of paper. It bore the words in the Doctor’s writing:
“Charles is safe, but I cannot safely leave this place yet.
I have obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from Charles to his wife. Let the bearer see his wife.”
It was dated from La Force, within an hour.
“Will you accompany me,” said Mr. Lorry, joyfully relieved after reading this note aloud, “to where his wife resides?”
“Yes,” returned Defarge.
Scarcely noticing as yet, in what a curiously reserved and mechanical way Defarge spoke, Mr. Lorry put on his hat and they went down into the courtyard. There, they found two women; one, knitting.
“Madame Defarge, surely!” said Mr. Lorry, who had left her in exactly the same attitude some seventeen years ago.
“It is she,” observed her husband.
“Does Madame go with us?” inquired Mr. Lorry, seeing that she moved as they moved.
“Yes. That she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons. It is for their safety.”
Beginning to be struck by Defarge’s manner, Mr. Lorry looked dubiously at him, and led the way. Both the women followed; the second woman being The Vengeance.
They passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they might, ascended the staircase of the new domicile, were admitted by Jerry, and found Lucie weeping, alone. She was thrown into a transport by the tidings Mr. Lorry gave her of her husband, and clasped the hand that delivered his note—little thinking what it had been doing near him in the night, and might, but for a chance, have done to him.
“DEAREST,—Take courage. I am well, and your father has influence around me. You cannot answer this. Kiss our child for me.”
That was all the writing. It was so much, however, to her who received it, that she turned from Defarge to his wife, and kissed one of the hands that knitted. It was a passionate, loving, thankful, womanly action, but the hand made no response—dropped cold and heavy, and took to its knitting again.
There was something in its touch that gave Lucie a check. She stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom, and, with her hands yet at her neck, looked terrified at Madame Defarge. Madame Defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold, impassive stare.
“My dear,” said Mr. Lorry, striking in to explain; “there are frequent risings in the streets; and, although it is not likely they will ever trouble you, Madame Defarge wishes to see those whom she has the power to protect at such times, to the end that she may know them—that she may identify them. I believe,” said Mr. Lorry, rather halting in his reassuring words, as the stony manner of all the three impressed itself upon him more and more, “I state the case, Citizen Defarge?”
Defarge looked gloomily at his wife, and gave no other answer than a gruff sound of acquiescence.
“You had better, Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, doing all he could to propitiate, by tone and manner, “have the dear child here, and our good Pross. Our good Pross, Defarge, is an English lady, and knows no French.”
The lady in question, whose rooted conviction that she was more than a match for any foreigner, was not to be shaken by distress and, danger, appeared with folded arms, and observed in English to The Vengeance, whom her eyes first encountered, “Well, I am sure, Boldface! I hope YOU are pretty well!” She also bestowed a British cough on Madame Defarge; but, neither of the two took much heed of her.
“Is that his child?” said Madame Defarge, stopping in her work for the first time, and pointing her knitting-needle at little Lucie as if it were the finger of Fate.
“Yes, madame,” answered Mr. Lorry; “this is our poor prisoner’s darling daughter, and only child.”
The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child, that her mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her, and held her to her breast. The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to fall, threatening and dark, on both the mother and the child.
“It is enough, my husband,” said Madame Defarge. “I have seen them. We may go.”
But, the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it—not visible and presented, but indistinct and withheld—to alarm Lucie into saying, as she laid her appealing hand on Madame Defarge’s dress:
“You will be good to my poor husband. You will do him no harm. You will help me to see him if you can?”
“Your husband is not my business here,” returned Madame Defarge, looking down at her with perfect composure. “It is the daughter of your father who is my business here.”
“For my sake, then, be merciful to my husband. For my child’s sake! She will put her hands together and pray you to be merciful. We are more afraid of you than of these others.”
Madame Defarge received it as a compliment, and looked at her husband. Defarge, who had been uneasily biting his thumb-nail and looking at her, collected his face into a sterner expression.
“What is it that your husband says in that little letter?” asked Madame Defarge, with a lowering smile. “Influence; he says something touching influence?”
“That my father,” said Lucie, hurriedly taking the paper from her breast, but with her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not on it, “has much influence around him.”
“Surely it will release him!” said Madame Defarge. “Let it do so.”
“As a wife and mother,” cried Lucie, most earnestly, “I implore you to have pity on me and not to exercise any power that you possess, against my innocent husband, but to use it in his behalf. O sister-woman, think of me. As a wife and mother!”
Madame Defarge looked, coldly as ever, at the suppliant, and said, turning to her friend The Vengeance:
“The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since we were as little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly considered? We have known THEIR husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them, often enough? All our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression and neglect of all kinds?”
“We have seen nothing else,” returned The Vengeance.
“We have borne this a long time,” said Madame Defarge, turning her eyes again upon Lucie. “Judge you! Is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?”
She resumed her knitting and went out. The Vengeance followed. Defarge went last, and closed the door.
“Courage, my dear Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her. “Courage, courage! So far all goes well with us—much, much better than it has of late gone with many poor souls. Cheer up, and have a thankful heart.”
“I am not thankless, I hope, but that dreadful woman seems to throw a shadow on me and on all my hopes.”
“Tut, tut!” said Mr. Lorry; “what is this despondency in the brave little breast? A shadow indeed! No substance in it, Lucie.”
But the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself, for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly.
背景介绍和作者介绍
这段文字选自查尔斯·狄更斯所著的《双城记》，这是一部历史小说，狄更斯是19世纪最著名的英国小说家之一。这部小说于1859年出版，背景设定在法国大革命的动荡时期，重点讲述了伦敦和巴黎人民的生活。狄更斯创作这部小说是为了探讨牺牲、复活以及暴政与正义之间的斗争等主题。
查尔斯·狄更斯以其生动的人物形象和社会评论而闻名，他经常强调穷人和受压迫者的困境。《双城记》是他最著名的作品之一，以其戏剧性的叙事和令人难忘的开篇语而著称：“这是最好的时代，这是最坏的时代……”
详细解读和意义
这段摘录揭示了人物在穿越革命时期的巴黎混乱时所面临的紧张和危险。洛瑞先生是一位忠诚而谨慎的银行家，他努力履行保护露西·马内特和她的孩子的职责，同时维护银行的利益。这一幕介绍了德伐日夫妇，他们是革命中的关键人物，他们冷酷而具有威胁性的举止与露西的温暖和脆弱形成了鲜明对比。
这个故事突出了忠诚、勇气以及政治动荡的残酷现实等主题。露西为她的丈夫查尔斯·达奈恳求怜悯和保护，突显了冲突的人力成本。德伐日夫人的编织，象征着命运和即将到来的厄运，增加了令人毛骨悚然的悬念。
给学生的教训和见解
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逆境中的勇气： 露西在面对危险时的勇敢和希望教会了我们即使在情况看起来很糟糕时也要保持坚强和富有同情心的重要性。
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正义的复杂性： 德伐日夫妇代表了革命正义的残酷性，提醒我们正义可能很复杂，有时是无情的。它鼓励对公平和同情心的批判性思考。
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忠诚和牺牲： 洛瑞先生对露西和她的家人的奉献表明了忠诚和无私的价值，这些品质可以建立信任和牢固的关系。
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理解历史： 这个故事让学生得以一窥法国大革命对普通人的影响，帮助学生欣赏历史对人类生活和社会的影响。
将这些教训应用于生活
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在学校： 学生可以学会像露西一样，勇敢地面对挑战。当感到不知所措时，记住她的勇气可以激发毅力。
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在社交场合： 这个故事鼓励对别人的挣扎感同身受。理解不同的观点，比如德伐日夫妇和露西的观点，有助于建立善良和宽容。
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在个人成长中： 培养忠诚，并像洛瑞先生一样为朋友和家人挺身而出，可以增强性格和社区联系。
从故事中培养积极的价值观
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同情心： 尝试从他人的角度看问题，即使他们看起来很严厉或不友好，以加深理解和同情。
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勇敢： 练习勇气，为正确的事情发声，并支持那些需要帮助的人。
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责任感： 像洛瑞先生一样，平衡个人情感与责任和承诺，学会做出深思熟虑的决定。
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希望： 在困难时期保持希望，因为它能激发毅力和积极的结果。
通过思考这些人物和他们的选择，学生可以对文学及其与日常生活的相关性有更深刻的理解。《双城记》不仅能娱乐，还能传授关于人性、正义以及爱与牺牲的力量的永恒教训。
